1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a footwear article conveyer; more particularly to a footwear article conveyer with carrier shifting units.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional footwear article conveyer for conveying footwear articles through a work station 3, such as a vacuum drying station with a pair of juxtaposed vacuum chambers. The footwear articles are placed in carriers 2 that are mounted slidably on an elongated looped frame 1, which has a lower section 61 extending through the work station 3, and an upper section 62 that is disposed above the lower section 61. The footwear articles, which are to be processed, are carried to one side of the frame 1 through a conveyer 4, and are subsequently loaded to one of the carriers 2, that is disposed at the side of the frame 1. The footwear articles, which are processed through the work station 3, are unloaded at the other side of the frame 1 and are subsequently carried away by a second conveyer 5. The carriers 2 are intermittently driven by a driving unit (not shown) to slide simultaneously along the frame 1. The sliding speeds for all of the carriers 2 on the lower and upper sections 61, 62 of the frame 1 are the same.
The conventional footwear article conveyer is disadvantageous in that a great number of the carriers 2 are required to be hung on the upper section 62 of the frame 1 so as to permit continuous feeding of the footwear articles through the work station 3. As a consequence, the capital cost is considerably increased. Moreover, the footwear articles are likely to fall off from the carriers 2, which are moved to the upper section 62 of the frame 1.